Europe's Solar Power Generation Hit a New Record of 56GW

Eurosolar released a report on the installed solar capacity in Europe on December 12, indicating that European solar energy hit a new record of 56GW this year. This is an increase of 40% compared to 2022 and has maintained at least 40% growth for three consecutive years. It also pointed out that growth may slow in 2024, with an expected increase of 11% to deliver 62GW. Germany returns to the top position in Europe with 14.1GW of solar capacity in 2023, followed by Spain (8.2GW), Italy (4.8GW), Poland (4.6GW) and the Netherlands (4.1GW).

 

The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Romania in Central and Eastern Europe have reached at least 1GW of solar energy per year, entering a new era of solar energy development.

 

In 2023, the EU added 55.9GW of solar capacity, an increase of 15.9GW compared to 2022, with nearly 17 million new homes using solar. 

Due to the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia's natural gas supply to Europe has been greatly reduced, and the International Energy Agency (IEA) has recommended the installation of 60GW of solar energy to make up for Russia's natural gas supply problems, and solar installation capacity is getting closer and closer to this goal. 

Photovoltaic Development in the EU

To expand the development of renewable energy, Europe has accelerated the deployment of solar energy, from less than 10GW in 2014 to 56GW today. The development of solar energy is the consensus of European countries, and it is also the awareness of enterprises and people to low-carbon environmental protection and clean energy.

 

Walburga Hemetsberger, CEO of Eurosolar, said: "Solar is a turning point in Europe's energy crisis and Europe must contribute to solar development, which is expected to achieve 70GW of installed capacity per year by 2030.

 

According to the latest data released by the German Federal Network Agency, it can be seen that from January to November 2023, photovoltaic installed capacity was 13.18GW, and the total cumulative installed capacity exceeded 80.74GW. After being surpassed by Spain in 2022, the solar installed capacity has been vigorously developed this year to achieve a reverse. The German government has set a target of 215Gw of photovoltaic cumulative installed capacity in 2030, which means that the total installed capacity accounts for one-third of the total installed capacity in the EU, to achieve this goal, the German Federal Government approved a series of policies to achieve the 2030 target.

 

Spain has one of the longest hours of sunshine in Europe, which has allowed the rapid development of solar energy in Spain. In 2004, solar energy accounted for 6.5% of renewable energy. In the following two years, with the continuous demonstration of solar advantages and policy impact, Spain's installed capacity increased by 27 times. There were some fluctuations in the development of solar energy in Spain in the following years, but it continued to grow, and as of 2019, photovoltaic energy accounted for 64% of renewable energy. Spain's National Energy Climate Plan (NECP) has set a target of 74% by 2030, with an expected installed capacity of 44GW.

Greece has strong momentum in the field of solar energy development and has great potential. More than 1GW of solar power will be installed in 2022. Greece's national energy plan increases the total installed solar capacity to 5.3 GW by 2025 and 7.7 GW by 2030.

European Power Grid

The reason for the early construction of the European power grid was the current small scale of the grid, too concentrated, and lack of correlation, resulting in high power transmission losses, low transmission efficiency, and hindering clean energy access to the grid, about 40% of the current grid lines more than 40 years, is about to reach the service life. The EU's energy commissioner said improvements to the grid were urgent and that failure to upgrade the grid line infrastructure would affect the 2030 target. At present, the EU is very serious about the upgrading of power facilities, and spends 23 billion euros a year on the upgrading of power grid supporting facilities, increasing the length of the power grid, and tightening the direct link of the power grid. 

 

Based on the power grid, the EU increases the power grid interconnection between member states to avoid partial power energy shortage. Demand for cross-border electricity exchange has surged across Europe, with five cross-border projects currently under construction and more in the preliminary stages.

Thermal Power Generation

With the outbreak of the war in Russia and Ukraine and the emergence of the European energy crisis, some countries have restarted coal-fired power plants, but under the rapid development of solar energy, the share of coal-fired power generation has not increased significantly, and with the development of clean energy, coal-fired power generation will continue to decline. thinktank Ember points to a sharp decline in coal-fired power generation in the EU, which accounts for about 16% of total power generation. With the rapid development of solar and other clean energy sources and targets to reduce CO2 emissions, wind and solar currently account for 22% of the EU's electricity generation, and hydropower and nuclear power account for 32%, there will be less and less room for subsequent coal-fired power demand.

Wind Power Generation

In the process of the development of renewable functional energy, wind power is also growing, is another path to decarbonization in Europe, by 2022, wind power will account for 17% of Europe's electricity generation, according to the European Wind Energy Organization data show that Denmark wind power accounted for the highest proportion, followed by Ireland and the United Kingdom. The European Commission has proposed a series of measures to boost the European wind energy sector, adding 16GW of wind power in 2022, with wind installations expected to grow from 204GW in 2022 to 500GW in 2030. Wind turbine manufacturers in Europe are currently spending a lot of time on licensing procedures, and the European Commission is speeding up.

Nuclear Power Generation

Some nuclear power plant accidents in history have divided many countries on the development of nuclear energy. Italy has completely phased out nuclear power generation, while France sees nuclear power as a low-carbon energy source and supports the development of nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is already heavily established in Europe, with 163 nuclear power plants on the continent, providing a quarter of Europe's total electricity generation.

Agricultural Photovoltaic

Renewable energy is beneficial to sustainable energy development and climate protection. Renewable energy is a growing share of the total in Europe, as is solar. The EU focuses on carbon dioxide emissions, and greenhouse gas emissions in the EU have gradually decreased since 1990. Various industries are vigorously developing solar energy. Eurostat data shows that there are 98 million hectares of arable land, and the current scale of agricultural solar energy development in Europe only accounts for 1% of the EU's agricultural available area, it is expected that photovoltaic systems will be installed in the next 50% of agricultural areas to support agricultural production and power production, there is great space for development. The European Commission's Joint Centre points out that agricultural solar power will contribute significantly to the EU's 2030 target for photovoltaic power generation.

Advantages of Solar Energy

Solar energy is an important part of the transformation of energy development from traditional energy to clean energy. It has great advantages for sustainable development and climate protection.

 

1. An important point of using solar energy is that it will greatly reduce the use of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

2. Solar energy is an inexhaustible source of energy. Traditional fossil fuels are produced under long-term high temperatures and pressure for millions of years on Earth and will be exploited one day. Solar energy is produced by the activity of stars in the universe, providing a steady supply of energy for billions of years to come.

3. Can be used in a wide range, every piece of land on the earth long or short will have light, which provides the basis for the large-scale development of solar energy, and can be built in any place with light photovoltaic facilities, including some remote areas, and a wide range of applications, small to family to company factories can use solar energy.

4. Solar energy can be imported into the power grid, the direct current generated by the solar panel can be converted into alternating current and then connected to the power grid system, which requires the use of DC cables and AC cables.

5. To provide a large number of jobs, the generation of new technology will drive the development of the related industrial chain, including the production and development of photovoltaic facilities, installation, and subsequent maintenance require a large number of personnel.

Solar Energy Future Outlook

Photovoltaic systems from the theory to the test continue to propose solutions and solutions, and have become a mature and perfect technology, to provide technical and economic guarantees, in the future new technology breakthroughs, will bring more benefits, especially in conversion efficiency. In the future, as prices continue to fall and conversion efficiency increases, solar energy will provide greater competitiveness.